To start off, I will talk about the importance of HYPY in Chinese learning and the common issues.

Is HYPY important? The answer is YES! No matter your child is good or poor in Chinese, HYPY is important. The first thing I would like to stress is that, HYPY is a TOOL, an important tool that all child should acquire. That is why MOE dedicated 1st term of P1 for HYPY learning. As a tool, HYPY allow children to search for words through dictionary (be it traditional or digital). You also need HYPY to type. In some schools 80% of Chinese lessons are ICT base, thus typing is essential and HYPY is a must to master.

However, HYPY can be an obstacle to Chinese learning. This happen when HYPY is being taught alone without relating HYPY to Chinese characters. It gives the wrong impression to the children that HYPY is the core of the language. It is extremely important to relate Chinese character with teaching HYPY. Many parents complaint that their child refuses to read Chinese story book without HYPY, this is a common issues and the cause to it is what I mentioned earlier.

In short, while HYPY is an important tool, we must put Chinese character before HYPY. Always teach HYPY relating to Chinese character.

Yes, I also agree that HYPY is a very good tool. Not just for typing and searching for words in dictionary, but also for proper pronounciation. e.g. the "si" and "shi". another good example is "鞋“(lesser these days but some people still pronounce it the same as "学“）

Yes, I also agree that HYPY is a very good tool. Not just for typing and searching for words in dictionary, but also for proper pronounciation. e.g. the "si" and "shi". another good example is "鞋“(lesser these days but some people still pronounce it the same as "学“）

不客气！=）You are right, HYPY definitely help children to pronounce and speak Chinese properly.

The example you quote “si” and “shi” is an issues to many kids. They find it difficult to differentiate 平舌音and 翘舌音. “si” is 平舌音while “shi” is翘舌音. How can we help the kids to differentiate? Again it is important to relate HYPY to Chinese character. For example, we can employ “四” and “士”. By P1 most of the child should be able to count 1 to 10 in Chinese, thus they are familiar with “四si 4th sound” and most of the children should know “bus” in Chinese, “巴士shi 4th sound”. As parents or teacher, we can then demonstrate to the child and help them to differentiate. After our demonstration, get them to read and make sure they got it right. We should give a few more examples to reinforce the differences. We should also employ what the child is familiar with (调动孩子的先备知识) to help them learn. Relate HYPY to words they already learn or at least words that they usually hear, use or understand. In English “shh…” produces the similar sound, we can use it as an example to help the child to pronounce “shi” correctly.

For “鞋” and “学”, children might get mixed up too. Imami’s observation is right by saying that this mistake is lesser these days .In most of the cases the confusion is cause by dialect. In the past, more children are take care by the grandparents and many grandparents speak dialect. When grandparents speak mandarin to the child, their accents are greatly influence by the dialect. The child will then pick up the ‘funny accents’ or ‘mistakes’. Today, more children are send to child care centre or take care by domestic helper; therefore this mistake is lesser now. For children, they will usually be able to differentiate “鞋” and “学” after they learn HYPY, however for some adults, they are so use to pronounce “鞋” as “xue”, is kind of difficult for them to correct it in a short period of time.

I listed down some of the common words that primary school children might use that end with “in” or “ing”. The most common mistake is “因” and “应”. Children get easily confuse between “因” and “应”, and might write “因该 this is wrong” instead of “应该 this is correct”.

Another word that children often pronounce wrongly is “音”. They pronounce “音yin 1st sound” as “ying 1st sound”.

During oral exam, we do not specifically penalise children who cannot differentiate “in” and “ing”, however if a child who can pronounce correctly will definitely impress the examiner.

Imami wrote:Other than "ing" and "in", I sometimes also have problem with "en" and "eng" ( 真惭愧，这么大了还不会）。

Another common wrong pronunciation is " 血＂。 some people will pronounce as " 雪＂ but again, getting lesser these days.

Pleco dictionary shows both 'xue' and 'xie' are the 拼音 for 血？ so which one is correct actually? 通用吗？

Good question. This is actually beyond the scope of HYPY; however I will still explain the difference here.

Both “xie 3rd sound" and “xue 4th sound” are correct pronunciation for “血”. The difference is in the context you are using the word “血”.

As a general guideline: when you are referring “血” as the blood, and are not combine with other word to form a term or noun, pronounce as “xie 3rd sound” Example: 流了很多血，吐了一口血，一滴血，一滩血

In idiom, formal writing or combining with other word to form a noun （合成词）, “血” pronounce as “xue 4th sound”. Example: 狗血淋头，血汗钱，混血儿，血海深仇，血液

The above are just general guideline; I did not go in-depth as it involves Chinese grammar which can be quite dry. However if you are interested to know more about it, please pm me, I can send you some materials relating to the topic.

P.S. "血" Only have 2 pronunciation, “xie 3rd sound” and “xue 4th sound” while “xue 3rd sound” is for “雪”(snow).